The Difference of Two Kinds
by enchantingwickedrose
Summary: When a presentation is held at the school for students, it changes the outlook on the zombies and their biggest hater is rethinking his ways.
1. Chapter 1

Phoebe

It was the start of another semester and the school was having an assembly.

Phoebe groaned.

It was about the differently biotic kids and though she was friends with them, it was hard. They were always made fun of and she was made fun of as well for hanging out with them.

It was truly amazing how stupid people could be. But then again, it was human nature. Or so Tommy said.

Phoebe shook her hair out of her eyes and looked to the assembly.

There were two scientists in pristine white lab coats and two young teenagers in trendy clothes. Phoebe couldn't tell if they were alive or not but they looked energetic. The principal tapped at the microphone and the buzzing chatter died down.

He then said, "Today we have two scientists from a research facility called Reliving Hope from Southern Texas. They have some things to say to us about tolerance and respect."

Phoebe mentally scoffed.

There was no way that anyone else was listening. She looked to her zombie friends sitting around her and she smiled. They were all paying attention to the female scientist who was speaking. That was good enough for her.

Phoebe tuned her ears into the conversation to amuse herself with what she could possibly be saying.

The female scientist said in an excited voice, "We at Reliving Hope have dedicated our time to proving that differently biotic teenagers can live as normal lives in our living world. Bethany and Lazarus are examples of this. Guys, stand please."

The two teenagers stood up and waved stiffly.

The woman continued, "Before they died, they were extremely successful young teens. Bethany was a professional gymnast and was on her way to the Olympics and Lazarus was an ice and field hockey player as well as a basketball and baseball enthusiast. Though they may be differently biotic now, they are still able to do the same things they used to. Bethany, your routine."

The girl swept her hair into a quick ponytail and shed her jacket. She gave a quick nod and catchy pop music started. She stepped into the center and she started with a simple cartwheel.

Phoebe heard scoffs and buzzes of conversation but she saw a devilish smile play on Bethany's lips.

Bethany then launched into a series of flips, rolls, jumps and spins that were definitely worthy of the Olympics. When the music ended, she landed a flip with a full spilt. The crowd clapped loudly yet nervously and the boy helped her to her feet.

The principal stepped up to the microphone and asked, "Bethany, how have you been able to achieve this level of motion?"

Bethany stepped up to the microphone and laughed, "A _lot_ of practice. I was lucky that I hadn't lost it all but Lazarus has had to work even harder than me."

Phoebe looked to se Lazarus strapping up skates to his feet slowly. He stood up without a wobble and he started off onto a small agility course that had been set up. He occasionally glanced a few cones but he was good. I leaned over to Tommy and asked, "You think that's possible?"

He shrugged in his awkward way and said, "They… may have had… different… deaths."

With that, he raised his hand and asked, "How… did they…die?"

Bethany and Lazarus looked to each other and Bethany spoke. "I was related to the first differently biotic teen, Dallas. He was a close cousin and friend. Everyone in my town knew and I was kidnapped along with Lazarus and beaten by a group of extremists. We both died because of it. After it all went down, I got Lazarus to wake up and we ran away. We saw the Reliving Hope flyers and we joined them in trying to get our lives back."

A loud snickering drew everyone's attention to Pete and his dunderheads.

Bethany's lips pursed and she asked sassily him through the microphone, "Hey, Mr. Funny Guy. Mind sharing the joke? 'Cause if you don't, I can come up there and beat it out of you."

Lazarus shook her shoulder and she made an odd movement with her arms. Lazarus responded in the same way and the male scientist explained. "This is their form of private communication. Do you mind if I translate?"

Bethany shrugged and she made a large amount of signs that the man translated to say, "Fine. If you must. But we were talking about how useless it is to come here when we have…"

He trailed off for a moment and scolded her. "Bethany, don't do that. They don't hate you and they aren't retards."

Bethany made another sign and the man sighed, "No, they would not do the same to you."

Bethany raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes and started addressing Lazarus again.

The man translated, "The nerve of living man is unspeakable. We are the slightest bit different and we are shunned to the ends of the earth. I can't believe that we must tolerate such idiocy. If people just respected each other, we wouldn't be on the verge of…"

He trailed off again and said, "Bethany, that isn't going to happen."

She threw her arms up in frustration and he translated, "If we were peaceful, there wouldn't have been either of our deaths. There wouldn't be the second deaths of our brothers and sisters stuck in living purgatory. There would be laws against killing us again. We would have real, legal rights. There wouldn't be these zombie haters ending our second lives. But no, you have people like that laughing riot zombie hater killing us just because we don't have a pulse. It's the way it has been for centuries and it's not going to change if we let people like him trample over us."

She then said verbally, "Mr. Funny Guy, come down here right now. I want to show you what it would be like if we were allowed to act on our emotions."

When he didn't move, she added. "I solemnly promise I won't kill you."

He sheepishly walked down and she said, "Throw a hit. Hard as you can."

His eyes widened and he pulled back his arm for a powerful punch but it never connected. The next second, he was face down on the floor, crying.

Phoebe stood up with the differently biotic kids and thought to herself, _"This is great. World War Zombie, here we come."_


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I haven't read the rest of the series {I only read Generation Dead; Looking for the rest of them} so sorry if I'm behind on stuff that happens. Adam is dead but Pete doesn't have a scar from 'Smiley' {Quick Q: Did Pete die in the first book? It's been a while and the details are fuzzy} and the zombies are still being mistreated. Enjoy Chapter Two!

Pete POV

Pete hated himself.

Why? Because he nearly died.

That girl Bethany had flipped him and his heart nearly stopped.

Nearly.

That had been the good thing. He couldn't imagine being like those undead creeps that were popping up like moles in his town.

The bad thing was he had gotten beaten up in one blow by one of those undead creeps. And the thing that was worse than that was that he had gotten beat by an undead creep that was a girl.

He could remember sending a punch and she caught it instantly.

But that wasn't the biggest surprise. She flipped over him and brought him flying with her in the air. She landed on her feet with ease and she body slammed him into the floor. He felt parts of his chest break and his heart slowed.

And then he heard her voice.

"Get up." She had ordered. He was crying so hard and the pain was so excruciating that he hardly noticed she was speaking.

"Get up." She commanded once more, this time more forceful and louder. The funny thing was that he almost obeyed her. His insides agreed with her and he nearly let his body rise to her calling voice.

But a little voice in his brain told him, "Since when do you take orders from dead freaks?"

That made him feel stronger but it wasn't strong enough to get him of the floor on his own. He saw her face out of the corner of his eye. She was crouched down over him, her eyes intently focused on him and she quickly shook her head.

Was he dead?

Was she saying that he had died?

But those thoughts went away when he felt his body being carefully flipped over.

Lights shone in his eyes and they asked him if they could hear him. He nodded weakly and he then cringed in pain. That girl was half his size and a tenth of his strength by the looks of it but she had definitely broken a lot with that stunt. He looked without moving his head and he saw that the dead kids that attended his school were by the two dead kids that had been brought as the demonstration. The Lazarus guy had his arm wrapped around a blank Bethany.

Then Bethany broke away from him and ran to where they were about to cart him to the emergency room. The EMTs backed away respectively and she said, "I'm sorry that happened. I will show you why I thought it would not affect you."

She raised a hand and Lazarus walked towards them.

When he arrived, she held out her arms in front of her. Pete heard Lazarus say, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She nodded but Pete was still puzzled. That changed when Lazarus flipped her over and body slammed her the same way that Bethany had body slammed Pete. After barely a minute, she was back on her feet.

She said to Pete, "Lazarus and I have been doing that exact thing for a while now. Neither of us was ever affected and you were alive so I thought that you would have no problem stopping me. I'm very sorry."

He said nothing and they left to go back to the other worm burgers. He saw Adam, Phoebe and Tommy out of the few standing next to the scientists that had come with Bethany and Lazarus. The scientists appeared to be talking rapidly with the principal while the coach was yelling at the tops of his lungs about how that zombie just put down one of his best players for the upcoming season.

He then saw Bethany push the scientists protectively behind her. She put a hand on the coach's shoulder and he tried to shrug her off. But her grip was firm and she still held him tightly. She then moved her hand to his neck and held him a good half a foot off the ground.

Pete could hear her voice say, "You can talk to me that way but no one else. My scientists are good people, unlike you. You are a disgrace to the living as you refuse to make amends with us. I will tolerate this abuse but be warned. If you talk this way to any of the other differently biotic kids, my scientists can't stop me from hurting you. Do I make myself clear?"

The coach was turning red and he refused to answer her. He was being stubborn as usual and Pete was proud of him for standing his ground to the zombies. However, Bethany didn't share the same appreciation.

She moved her thumb to his Adam's apple and squeezed. "Do I make myself clear, sir?"

The coach's face went purple and he nodded as best as he could. She released him and he fell to his knees, gasping for breath. He shot a dirty look at Bethany as she walked back to the other zombies and Lazarus lunged at him.

Bethany and Tommy held him back but Pete saw Bethany's jaw clench when the coach taunted Lazarus with insults, "Yeah. You know better than to mess with the normal people, sonny. Go back to your freaks and learn how to die properly."

Bethany's eyes widened at the end of his statement and Adam restrained her when she started pushing against her worried scientist chaperones.

Adam let go when she settled momentarily and she took her chance and ran at the coach.

She grabbed his throat with one hand and held his arms together with the other. She then kicked him in the tender parts and the coach let out a howl. She then let go of his throat and began hitting him with flurries of hard kicks and rapid punches.

Colette and Adam grabbed her and she fought against them while yelling at the coach, "You deserve to rot in Hell, you pig-headed, dim witted, zombie hater!"

The coach paid no mind as both he and the principal left the gymnasium.

Pete saw the female scientist pull something out of her pocket. It was a syringe and a very sharp and long one at that. She sunk all eight inches of the needle into Bethany's neck. The last thing Pete saw was Bethany slumped in the other freaks' arms.

He felt sorry that she had to have that done but something wasn't right. Pete thought that zombies weren't supposed to feel. He guessed that whatever that scientist had been explaining had let those two feel anger.

If that was her promising _not_ to kill him, what would happen if she _did_ promise to kill?

And what if she tried to kill him?


End file.
